Comments on: The Perpetual Teach-In for Perpetual Indoctrination http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/ Opinion Matters Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:47:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Anonymous http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-21 Anonymous Sun, 19 Feb 2006 22:48:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-21 Withdrawing from the class at the School of Professional Psychology is certainly a reasonable thing to do. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is unlikely to have any effect on the professorial behavior you decry. Most schools receive the bulk of their funding from third part sources like governments and endowments. Your withdrawal from the class is too small an irritant for them to notice. How about suing them? The school offered a psychology course. The professor delivered something else. That's a breach of contract. Of course the professors will try to change the subject to "academic freedom", but if it can be sufficiently emphasized that a professor is free to teach anything so long as the professor honestly tells the students what they are going to be taught, then maybe a court's attention can be kept on the "breach of contract" aspect of the suit. It could be fun, if nothing else. Withdrawing from the class at the School of Professional Psychology is certainly a reasonable thing to do. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is unlikely to have any effect on the professorial behavior you decry. Most schools receive the bulk of their funding from third part sources like governments and endowments. Your withdrawal from the class is too small an irritant for them to notice.
How about suing them? The school offered a psychology course. The professor delivered something else. That’s a breach of contract. Of course the professors will try to change the subject to “academic freedom”, but if it can be sufficiently emphasized that a professor is free to teach anything so long as the professor honestly tells the students what they are going to be taught, then maybe a court’s attention can be kept on the “breach of contract” aspect of the suit. It could be fun, if nothing else.

]]> By: Anonymous http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-20 Anonymous Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:55:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-20 Its possible that the entry by Anonymous who claims he's also a "paedophile" is merely the work of a provocateur, but for the sake of argument, I'll assume that Mr. Diddle is serious--besides, there's enough snark and pomposity in the comment to conclude its sincere. That Mr. Diddle doesn't understand how damaging to his credibility the admission of "digging" young boys is only underscores how pervasive the pathologies are that infect "academic" minds. But what I always love the best from the professor class (as well as the journalist class) is their devotion to assertion: <I>"Academia rubs conservatism the wrong way because reason and logic are antithesis to rightwing ideology. You can’t talk about the humanist tradition in the Renaissance while currently espousing anti-Semitic or anti-Black opinions; the two just don’t jive [sic]. If you want that sort of stuff, turn on Fox News."</I> No facts, no evidence, just a lofty pronouncement. In other words, people who disagree with Mr. Diddle are deeply flawed and racist. Mr. Diddle has spent so much time in an intellectual vacuum that he actually believes these self-serving mantras: We on the Left are brave and noble practitioners of logic and reason--and anyone who disagrees is a bigot, racist, homophobe, McCarthyite, Nazi, sexist, war-mongering, Bible-thumping fool. We are at the beginning of a new age in academia where professors will have to be accountable to more than their own self-serving opinions of themselves. Naturally, they resist mightily for they have enjoyed something few ever experience: job security without regard to performance. Everyone of us in the real world has our work product analyzed and reviewed. That's a healthy thing. Its time for people like Mr. Diddle to have their performance under a bit of scrutiny as well. If they were more concerned about doing a good job, perhaps they would spend less time daydreaming about young boys. Its possible that the entry by Anonymous who claims he’s also a “paedophile” is merely the work of a provocateur, but for the sake of argument, I’ll assume that Mr. Diddle is serious–besides, there’s enough snark and pomposity in the comment to conclude its sincere.

That Mr. Diddle doesn’t understand how damaging to his credibility the admission of “digging” young boys is only underscores how pervasive the pathologies are that infect “academic” minds.

But what I always love the best from the professor class (as well as the journalist class) is their devotion to assertion:

“Academia rubs conservatism the wrong way because reason and logic are antithesis to rightwing ideology. You can’t talk about the humanist tradition in the Renaissance while currently espousing anti-Semitic or anti-Black opinions; the two just don’t jive [sic]. If you want that sort of stuff, turn on Fox News.”

No facts, no evidence, just a lofty pronouncement. In other words, people who disagree with Mr. Diddle are deeply flawed and racist. Mr. Diddle has spent so much time in an intellectual vacuum that he actually believes these self-serving mantras: We on the Left are brave and noble practitioners of logic and reason–and anyone who disagrees is a bigot, racist, homophobe, McCarthyite, Nazi, sexist, war-mongering, Bible-thumping fool.

We are at the beginning of a new age in academia where professors will have to be accountable to more than their own self-serving opinions of themselves. Naturally, they resist mightily for they have enjoyed something few ever experience: job security without regard to performance. Everyone of us in the real world has our work product analyzed and reviewed. That’s a healthy thing. Its time for people like Mr. Diddle to have their performance under a bit of scrutiny as well. If they were more concerned about doing a good job, perhaps they would spend less time daydreaming about young boys.

]]> By: contratimes http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-19 contratimes Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:08:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-19 The very first comment here, posted by <I>anonymous</I>, is suspicious. I am tempted to think it was drafted by a strident right-winger, for no 'liberal,' paedophilic, professor could be so empty, so predictably empty. Mr. Anonymous, after all, must not know his material: for liberals, passion always trumps reason. Come now. Leftists have long considered conservatism heartless and cold due to its penchant for reason; how else to explain then-presidential candidate Bush's 1999 repackaging of conservatism as "compassionate conservatism?" If you want analytic reasoning, turn to a conservative: George Will, William F. Buckley, (the late) Allan Bloom, or John Leo; these folks would sweep the floor with the most "rational" team of liberals one could assemble. Reason is a conservative virtue deemed a vice by conservatism's critics. Why do so many professors lean left? In part, I believe, it is the very nature of the professorship: universities, from the inside, are perfect little socialist communes, where everyone has a rôle, a job, for which they are rewarded according to ability and need; while the money just comes from "who-knows-where?" Moreover, professors are forced by the very nature of the Ph.D.-process to be iconoclasts: for they must produce theses that are -- ostensibly -- original. Hence, Ph.D. candidates produce the most wild theses for consideration, like, <I>Feline Abuse, "The Cat in the Hat," and Androgyne Exploitation in the American Haberdashery Industry</I>, or, <I>Racism and Crayola: Why So Few Crayons Represented Central African Aesthetic Theory And Landscape Hues In The 1950's</I>. For the doctorate industry to survive, truth can't be truth, ie. static and normative; truth must be elastic and relative, a matter of debate and fodder for opinionmaking. Of course, I hyperbolize, but not by much. Professors are constantly pressured to conform to the expectations of their colleagues; to produce new and unique material, justifying their existences and, at least prima facie, their tenures. But if there are indeed answers in the canon of Western thought; if there are indeed timeless truths to be found therein, today's professors are not interested, for timeless truths and the thoughts of predecessors dislocate today's "innovators" from the center of the university. What professor in his right mind would ever admit that Aristotle was smarter than he'll ever be, or that Pascal, in fact, did answer a question once for all? I will read David Horowitz's book, and I will think it through on my own, though I will depend on the help I've received from Plato, Aquinas and Descartes, to name a few. Thanks. Bill Gnade The very first comment here, posted by anonymous, is suspicious. I am tempted to think it was drafted by a strident right-winger, for no ‘liberal,’ paedophilic, professor could be so empty, so predictably empty. Mr. Anonymous, after all, must not know his material: for liberals, passion always trumps reason. Come now. Leftists have long considered conservatism heartless and cold due to its penchant for reason; how else to explain then-presidential candidate Bush’s 1999 repackaging of conservatism as “compassionate conservatism?” If you want analytic reasoning, turn to a conservative: George Will, William F. Buckley, (the late) Allan Bloom, or John Leo; these folks would sweep the floor with the most “rational” team of liberals one could assemble. Reason is a conservative virtue deemed a vice by conservatism’s critics.

Why do so many professors lean left? In part, I believe, it is the very nature of the professorship: universities, from the inside, are perfect little socialist communes, where everyone has a rôle, a job, for which they are rewarded according to ability and need; while the money just comes from “who-knows-where?” Moreover, professors are forced by the very nature of the Ph.D.-process to be iconoclasts: for they must produce theses that are — ostensibly — original. Hence, Ph.D. candidates produce the most wild theses for consideration, like, Feline Abuse, “The Cat in the Hat,” and Androgyne Exploitation in the American Haberdashery Industry, or, Racism and Crayola: Why So Few Crayons Represented Central African Aesthetic Theory And Landscape Hues In The 1950’s. For the doctorate industry to survive, truth can’t be truth, ie. static and normative; truth must be elastic and relative, a matter of debate and fodder for opinionmaking.

Of course, I hyperbolize, but not by much. Professors are constantly pressured to conform to the expectations of their colleagues; to produce new and unique material, justifying their existences and, at least prima facie, their tenures. But if there are indeed answers in the canon of Western thought; if there are indeed timeless truths to be found therein, today’s professors are not interested, for timeless truths and the thoughts of predecessors dislocate today’s “innovators” from the center of the university. What professor in his right mind would ever admit that Aristotle was smarter than he’ll ever be, or that Pascal, in fact, did answer a question once for all?

I will read David Horowitz’s book, and I will think it through on my own, though I will depend on the help I’ve received from Plato, Aquinas and Descartes, to name a few.

Thanks.

Bill Gnade

]]> By: Anonymous http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-18 Anonymous Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:55:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-18 'Shared by Jesus' What an Utter Crock. Replace Jesus with Mo and you will be in the right ballpark, buddy. truth4achange, you wouldn't be one of those people who claims he Never hears anything bad said about Christians and the like, on campus? Perhaps it is because you are two busy laughing over such hate-filled slurs... Bravo, Mr. Chapin. Keep up the good work. ‘Shared by Jesus’

What an Utter Crock. Replace Jesus with Mo and you will be in the right ballpark, buddy.

truth4achange, you wouldn’t be one of those people who claims he Never hears anything bad said about Christians and the like, on campus? Perhaps it is because you are two busy laughing over such hate-filled slurs…

Bravo, Mr. Chapin. Keep up the good work.

]]> By: Anonymous http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-17 Anonymous Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:54:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-17 'Shared by Jesus' What an Utter Crock. Replace Jesus with Mo and you will be in the right ballpark, buddy. truth4achange, you wouldn't be one of those people who claims he Never hears anything bad said about Christians and the like, on campus? Perhaps it is because you are two busy laughing over such hate-filled slurs... Bravo, Mr. Chapin. Keep up the good work. ‘Shared by Jesus’

What an Utter Crock. Replace Jesus with Mo and you will be in the right ballpark, buddy.

truth4achange, you wouldn’t be one of those people who claims he Never hears anything bad said about Christians and the like, on campus? Perhaps it is because you are two busy laughing over such hate-filled slurs…

Bravo, Mr. Chapin. Keep up the good work.

]]> By: Mark Goldberg http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Mark Goldberg Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:39:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-16 Actually, your comment truth4achange.... is that you are a pedant, who refuses to hear the very words, the vugarities, the vicious hatreds, that the 'reviewer' just related from within the pages. Vicious, snarling, lying, dissimulation- and all you can come back with- is a comment that the reviewer and the writer are radical right extremists. The fact that you are numb as a boot, and intellectually and ethically dead from the neck up screams reams of information....'go read the book, go read the book' is what people see floating by a post such as yours. Pitiful. Mark Actually, your comment truth4achange…. is that you are a pedant, who refuses to hear the very words, the vugarities, the vicious hatreds, that the ‘reviewer’ just related from within the pages.
Vicious, snarling, lying, dissimulation- and all you can come back with- is a comment that the reviewer and the writer are radical right extremists.

The fact that you are numb as a boot, and intellectually and ethically dead from the neck up screams reams of information….’go read the book, go read the book’ is what people see floating by a post such as yours.
Pitiful.

Mark

]]> By: an observer http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-10 an observer Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:19:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-10 ...And Horowitz is exactly right to uncover and to document for the public the radicalism of tenured college professors who preach Marxism, male-bashing, "multiculturalism," and any other number of leftwing inanities that pass for "college education." We are not paying the professors to opine about their political leanings. Sorry - if you advertise "education" and instead sell "liberal/Marxist indoctrination," that is called false advertising. If colleges were run like businesses instead of government entitlement programs, most would've been open and closed within five years. Their constant tuition increases, mediocre output and increasing irrelevance to what they actually claim to sell causes many of the customers (us) to wonder what the hell the people "in charge" are trying to accomplish. Faculties and controversial departments as well as administrators have nobody but the radical left and themselves to blame for the problems they are now facing. When students graduate from college, they are expected to go into the world with skills and knowledge that they may actually apply one day, not long-debunked and dead Marxist/socialist propaganda that does nothing to advance or enlighten anybody. Marxism closes the mind, encourages adherence to its self-serving religion and discriminates against all classes, production levels and races. It has been proven a catastrophic failure for humanity everywhere it has been implemented (regardless of intent). Ignoring the facts about radical leftwing domination of academia does not change the facts. I am currently finishing my graduate work at a large and well known University in Philadelphia, and I have yet to attend one class just this semester in which I am not subjected to snide and off-handed opinions/comments by my "teachers" about "right-wing nutballs" and "scary times to be an American during this Presidency" interjected into nearly every discussion. That doesn't even include the brainwashed students in the classes. I have hard evidence in my posession to verify this, should I need to. Since I did undergrad work at the same school, I noticed it has been going on since at least 2000 (the terminal Bush Derangement Syndrome, that is). Find comparable vitriol and radicalism on the right in Universities across the nation, and then document them and write your own book, if you are that certain that this well-founded and meticulously sourced statement is "pathetic." I've seen none of your evidence to refute this, and after reading a pedophile's professor's post as the first response here, it makes a nice case and point to Horowitz's argument. Methinks the left doth protest too much, if this is indeed all hullabaloo (which the anti-Righties claim but can't prove that it is). Throw a stone into a pack of hyenas, and the one that yelps the loudest is the one on which you scored the direct hit. Bravo, Mr. Horowitz. …And Horowitz is exactly right to uncover and to document for the public the radicalism of tenured college professors who preach Marxism, male-bashing, “multiculturalism,” and any other number of leftwing inanities that pass for “college education.” We are not paying the professors to opine about their political leanings.

Sorry – if you advertise “education” and instead sell “liberal/Marxist indoctrination,” that is called false advertising. If colleges were run like businesses instead of government entitlement programs, most would’ve been open and closed within five years. Their constant tuition increases, mediocre output and increasing irrelevance to what they actually claim to sell causes many of the customers (us) to wonder what the hell the people “in charge” are trying to accomplish. Faculties and controversial departments as well as administrators have nobody but the radical left and themselves to blame for the problems they are now facing.

When students graduate from college, they are expected to go into the world with skills and knowledge that they may actually apply one day, not long-debunked and dead Marxist/socialist propaganda that does nothing to advance or enlighten anybody. Marxism closes the mind, encourages adherence to its self-serving religion and discriminates against all classes, production levels and races. It has been proven a catastrophic failure for humanity everywhere it has been implemented (regardless of intent).

Ignoring the facts about radical leftwing domination of academia does not change the facts. I am currently finishing my graduate work at a large and well known University in Philadelphia, and I have yet to attend one class just this semester in which I am not subjected to snide and off-handed opinions/comments by my “teachers” about “right-wing nutballs” and “scary times to be an American during this Presidency” interjected into nearly every discussion. That doesn’t even include the brainwashed students in the classes. I have hard evidence in my posession to verify this, should I need to. Since I did undergrad work at the same school, I noticed it has been going on since at least 2000 (the terminal Bush Derangement Syndrome, that is).

Find comparable vitriol and radicalism on the right in Universities across the nation, and then document them and write your own book, if you are that certain that this well-founded and meticulously sourced statement is “pathetic.” I’ve seen none of your evidence to refute this, and after reading a pedophile’s professor’s post as the first response here, it makes a nice case and point to Horowitz’s argument.

Methinks the left doth protest too much, if this is indeed all hullabaloo (which the anti-Righties claim but can’t prove that it is). Throw a stone into a pack of hyenas, and the one that yelps the loudest is the one on which you scored the direct hit.

Bravo, Mr. Horowitz.

]]> By: chrislf http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-9 chrislf Thu, 16 Feb 2006 09:59:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-9 A paedophile Professor who wishes to remain anonymous, disagrees. Hmmmmm. Maybe he's miffed 'cause he didn't make the list yet. Ah well, some shit floats and some sinks. A paedophile Professor who wishes to remain anonymous, disagrees. Hmmmmm. Maybe he’s miffed ’cause he didn’t make the list yet. Ah well, some shit floats and some sinks.

]]> By: Anonymous http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Anonymous Thu, 16 Feb 2006 01:52:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-11 No, truth4achange is pathetic. Anyone who by their handle feels they have the corner on truth is obviously a liberal. How can you tell? Because as much as liberals love to tell you that there is no such thing as objective truth they always seem to have it. It doesn't make sense to me either. Horowitz knows that he will deliberately be shut out by mainstream book reviewers because of his politics so he gets what he can. You can't blame him for that. No, truth4achange is pathetic. Anyone who by their handle feels they have the corner on truth is obviously a liberal. How can you tell? Because as much as liberals love to tell you that there is no such thing as objective truth they always seem to have it. It doesn’t make sense to me either.

Horowitz knows that he will deliberately be shut out by mainstream book reviewers because of his politics so he gets what he can. You can’t blame him for that.

]]> By: Truth4AChange http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Truth4AChange Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:51:00 +0000 http://blogwonks.com/2006/02/14/the-perpetual-teach-in-for-perpetual-indoctrination/#comment-12 Personally, my favorite element of this story is that David Horowitz considers this rant the first actual "review" of his book. Of course its nothing of the sort; regardless of whether you agree with Chapin or not, his piece is a celebration of like-minded views, with no pretense of critical analysis or anything else normally found in a review. That two radical right extremists share similar perspectives on academia is interesting at some level, I suppose, but the fact that Horowitz celebrates this as the first recognition of his book is, well, pathetic. Personally, my favorite element of this story is that David Horowitz considers this rant the first actual “review” of his book. Of course its nothing of the sort; regardless of whether you agree with Chapin or not, his piece is a celebration of like-minded views, with no pretense of critical analysis or anything else normally found in a review. That two radical right extremists share similar perspectives on academia is interesting at some level, I suppose, but the fact that Horowitz celebrates this as the first recognition of his book is, well, pathetic.

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